Jordan Eberle had about as much luck penetrating the Dallas defence as any Oiler - not much.

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Among many other problems, the Edmonton Oilers were victims of lousy timing on Monday. They went into one of their least favourite buildings on the continent to face a Dallas Stars team reeling from a five-game losing streak, but playing in front of their brand new owner for the first time. The Stars responded with a gritty and tenacious performance that the Oilers were simply unable to match. Facing heavy pressure, Edmonton had great trouble clearing their own zone, moving the puck cleanly through neutral ice, or establishing possession in the Stars end. The bottom two defence pairs had a particularly rough go of it, showing their inexperience in the face of constant forechecking while committing key mistakes on the first three Dallas goals.

Playing on their customary terrible ice, the Stars came out hitting everything that moved (which included most but not all of the Oilers), sending Ryan Nugent-Hopkins a surly message on his first shift with a couple of slewfoots (by Steve Ott and Mike Ribeiro) and a hit directly in the numbers (by Brenden Morrow) that set the tone for a rough night for the Oil. Other skill players like Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, and especially Ales Hemsky took a hammering over the course of the night, as the Stars played as if their job were on the line. Officially Dallas outhit Edmonton 47-33, although those numbers have to be taken with a few pounds of salt as the Dallas hitcounter is notoriously liberal compared to most. Make no mistake though, it was the Stars who dominated this one physically, as well as on the sot clock and the scoreboard.

Dallas won all three periods by a goal apiece, and held a decisive edge on the shot clock each frame to emphasize their superiority – 14-7, 13-7, finally 8-4 as the Oilers were unable to break through at all in the third, even with three powerplay chances down the stretch. The final thrust, a two minute 6-on-4, was punctuated by the first shorthanded goal of the year allowed by the Oil, an empty netter by Radek Dvorak of all people, 50 minutes after another former Oiler, Toby Petersen, had opened the scoring. One of those nights.

#4 Taylor Hall, 4 - Led the Oilers with 6 attempted shots but didn’t create much in the way of dangerous chances. Tried to be involved phsycially but not to much effect. Didn’t have a great game defensively.

#10 Shawn Horcoff, 4 - His line with Jones and Lander spent most of its ice time in front of the two inexperienced defence pairs. Had a couple of defensive issues, with a Neilson number of +2/-4. Didn’t get much done on the powerplay, and fell awkwardly at the end of the last one leading directly to the empty netter.

#14 Jordan Eberle, 5 - Led Oiler forwards with over 21 minutes ice time, including seven minutes on the powerplay. Made a decent play on the one Oilers goal, chipping the puck into the middle and driving to the net. Had three of the Oilers’ 18 shots to co-lead the club, and made positive contributions on six Oiler scoring chances. Also made a weak backcheck on Ott’s goal, switching off with the centre but failing to pick up his responsibilities.

#16 Darcy Hordichuk, 4 - Returned to the line-up after a month on the shelf, and more than doubled his season’s ice time by playing 5½ minutes on an ineffective line with Belanger and Petrell. Was awarded with three hits but none were memorable.

#20 Eric Belanger, 4 – Hasn’t had the best of wingers of late, but had some defensive issues of his own on the first Dallas goal and contributed precious little offensively. His even strength Neilson Number of +0/-3 was the worst of any forward. Had one decent shot from the point on the powerplay, but like all the others he’s taken as an Oiler, couldn’t beat the goalie.

#24 Theo Peckham, 3 – Was scorched for a team-high five scoring chances against, including being caught out somewhat on the second goal when both he and Petry wandered behind the goal line, and a whole lot on the third, both killer goals that gave the Stars a two-goal lead. The latter was particularly untimely, coming less than a minute after the Oilers had finally solved Kari Lehtonen to cut the lead to one, only to give it right back. Just as was the case against Ottawa last Thursday, Peckham made a horrible pinch at the offensive blueline which led to a wide-open 3-on-1 going the other way resulting in a game-changing goal against. For a man who preaches defensive patience like Tom Renney, these kinds of errors of exuberance have to be hard to take.

#28 Ryan Jones, 6 - One of Oilers more visible forwards in a defensive role with Horcoff and Lander. Ground it out and at least tried to be physical, twice hitting Stars’ hardrock Mark Fistric to little effect. Posted positive numbers right across the event summary – four attempted shots, two hits, a takeaway, two blocks. Allowed little in the way of shots or scoring chances, either at evens or on the PK.

#33 Colten Teubert, 4 - Played a high-event defensive game, leading the sqaud in both hits (6) and blocked shots (3) despite being a distant sixth on the blue in ice time with just over 10 minutes TOI, all of it at evens. Did have his challenges with coverage at times, including on the first Stars goal. Also took a slightly bogus delay of game penalty for knocking the net off its moorings.

#35 Nikolai Khabibulin, 6 - Hung in reasonably well behind the error prone Oilers defence, at least managing to keep the score respectable. Petersen’s goal on the short side was a bit weak but may have been deflected by his own player; the second goal, by Ott, was a bang-bang play following a bad defensive lapse; and the third an unstoppable rocket by one of the NHL’s purest shooters, Michael Ryder. Made quite a few solid stops in between times.

#37 Lennart Petrell, 4 - The newly constructed fourth line didn’t get ‘er done. Petrell’s attempt to deflect Petersen’s shot wound up tipping the puck past his own goalie. Did absolutely zero at the offensive end to make amends. Oilers were outshot 6-1 and outchanced 4-0 on Petrell’s watch.

#41 Taylor Chorney, 3 - Was absolutely worked by Petersen behind the net, then beaten to the front of the net by the same player as the Stars fourth line opened the scoring. Struggled in his own zone at times throughout the game and didn’t show enough puck-moving chops to alleviate the pressure.

#55 Ben Eager, did not play – After 16 underwhelming games, took a seat in the pressbox so Darcy Hordichuk could underwhelm in his place.

#57 Anton Lander, 5 - An average performance judging by stats that say +4/-4 on the shot clock, +1/-1 by both David Staples’ and Dennis King’s scoring chance counts, 2/4=50% on the faceoff dot, and even plus-minus. Took a hellacious hit from Dallas headhunter Mark Fistric but survived it none the worse for wear. Showed a little edge of his own at times as well.

#58 Jeff Petry, 4 - Struggled at times in his own zone, especially with some soft coverage on Ott on the second Stars’ goal. Also got badly burned on the 3-on-1 that put this one away. Played fast and loose with the puck at times, being charged with three of Oilers’ five giveaways. Also was credited with two takeaways as his active stick dislodged a few pucks along the way. Still, Oilers were outshot 14-2 during his 15 minutes at evens.

#77 Tom Gilbert, 7 - Oilers best defenceman by a wide margin. Gilbert played nearly 29 minutes, and was only on for the empty netter which went up the other side of the ice. Five attempted shots, a couple of hits, and an unrecorded boat load of touches. Tuesday’s game in Nashville less than 24 hours after this one is going to be a tough turnaround for Gilbert in particular.

#83 Ales Hemsky, 4 - Had one glorious chance on a give-and-go with Gagner which he dinged off the post, otherwise had a quiet night offensively with no other scoring chances and zero shots on goal. Fared poorly by Neilson number (+1/-3) and on-ice scoring chances (+2/-6) and shots (+3/-8). He seemed to be skating OK, but took a couple of hard hits that appeared to cause more pain in his troublesome shoulder(s). Didn’t back down in the face of heavy punishment, and even dished out a little of his own with a nice hit on Sheldon Souray.

#89 Sam Gagner, 5 - Just average. Was working hard but seemed to be on the wrong side of the puck too frequently. Made one beautiful feed to Hemsky that very nearly clicked. Had a decent night on the dot (7/13=54%) to lead the Oilers.

#91 Magnus Paajarvi, did not play – Is becoming a press box regular.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 5 - Hard game to judge with quite a few positive and negative contributions. Did score the Oilers lone goal with some nifty puck control that allowed him to walk Souray and beat Lehtonen with a low shot, and also had a couple other demonstrations of his sick hands, especially one sequence in the corner which had me exclaiming with disbelief. Had a couple of soft plays on the puck as well, especially a turnover which led to a fine shorthanded chance for the Stars in the dying seconds of the first. His line did generate a few chances but his personal Neilson number of +3/-4 at evens was subpar. Was the target of heavy checking from the likes of Ott, Morrow, and the sneaky Ribeiro, but gave out a couple of good ones himself, especially a solid dart which bounced an onrushing Morrow to the ice.

#94 Ryan Smyth, 5 – Came oh so close to tying it up but his second period wraparound attempt at an open net went right across the goal line. Ten seconds later the puck was in Oilers’ net and the deficit an insurmountable two goals.

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Next up: Edmonton @ Nashville, Tuesday November 22, 18:00 MST

A meeting of Oilers old, new, and ageless. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins bursts past Radek Dvorak, while Ryan Smyth cruises by in the foreground.

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